Most interesting part of the Los Angeles Kings loss to the St. Louis in game one? A Dustin Penner sighting.

Actually, that was the best I’ve seen Penner skate and push people around, rag the puck, stay engaged, create chances since the 2009-2010 Edmonton Oilers’ season where players were auditioning for Olympic team spots and Penner popped 32 goals and had 63 points.

Kings’ coach Darryl Sutter, who has had a suite reserved for Penner in his doghouse most of the season, scratching him 10 times, realized Penner was on and played him not just on a line with Jarret Stoll and Trevor Lewis but tried to get him work with some of the big guns, too. He only played 15 1/2 minutes, but most of those minutes came in the third period and the overtime, when he was a force.

As we’ve written before, the big teddy bear has squandered his talent for a large part of his NHL career, but only in regular season. Once the playoff light goes on, he’s a way different player, much like Esa Tikkanen was here. Of course, Penner gets paid for the 82 league games, which must bug the guy writing the paycheques as he watches Penner’s exasperating play. But in the post-season, he gets his focus, his footspeed seems to improve.

It’s hard to argue the fact he’s got two Stanley Cup rings and he contributed to both–one in Anaheim with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf and one last spring in LA. In game one against the Blues, Sutter said some of his players weren’t ready for the full-out assault by St. Louis. He wouldn’t be including Penner in that list. He was one of the two or three best forwards, at least from what I saw.

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